Army of the Damned

VOLUME 2 Chapter 3

Glistening like a golden pearl in the sea of green forests and rocky mountains, Grandure stood on its own, with its magnificence radiating for kilometers. Even afar, one could see the glimmer of the city touted as Man's capital. With four major highways in the axis of North, South, East, and West, with each of the large roads having their own ornate show of statues and pillars, Jackson couldn't be anymore impressed.

Shadows of large birds and Dragons flown by the citizens past by his wagon, looking up, the skies were as busy as the roads below with the Dragon Tower actively importing and exporting goods. Blown completely away at the architecture of the city, he didn't speak on the entire way to the South Gate. Merely silence as his eyes were in awe of the beauty before him. Every wall, curb, pillar, and railing was painted and designed with functionality and usability in mind.

Even the stalls on the large sidewalks were dressed in fine silk wraps, the people behind, wearing colorful clothes as those visiting from far away Kingdoms took there time to gander at the local goods.

What got him even more impressed was the path of the foreign country was extremely clean and well kept with people constantly patrolling the roads themselves, every litter was picked up and even the spaces between the cobblestone tiles were inspected and kept clean.

Coming close to the gate, more and more grunts were present and even a military band was playing the hymns from all corners of the Kingdom. Perfectly aligned large flag poles waved the country's proud flag that was pouring with extravagance as it sat in the center amongst the flags of the many Noble families of James.

The colorful road was full of different kinds of people, some even slightly more tanned than the others and in remote garnets as the atmosphere was different upon getting close to the checkpoint. "Welcome to Grandure, Capital of Holy James, please be sure to check the Visitors Office." To much his surprise, it didn't even feel like he was entering a massive walled off city but instead was being welcomed with open arms to arrive and come to their city to see its beauty to the fullest. Touting its wealth and unimaginable power that reaches beyond the stars.

None of the guards looked off, they even smelled nice and gave big wide open smiles as they showed off their fine tabards made of silk and polished steel plates, the Lances they used were evidently fused with enchantments, the odd glimmer it gave not only made it stand out but also indicate the power of even a lowly soldier had in the city.

"Jackson, wanna walk around first? The Cathedral is straight down the road." looking at the large four lane cobblestone road, the holy structure stood at the very end, with such a massive tower, it could easily give the main castle a run for its money though oddly enough, it was only painted in a white color, most of its extravagance coming out of its large stained windows.

Its glimmer reaches even down on the South Gate. Jackson though was still mute, tending to his own business before he got shaken by Bahamut. "O-Oh! Walk! Yeah! Let's do that for a moment. I need to get something from the back anyways."

Stopping by the road, they exit out. "Ingraine, the letter is on you, right?" she nods, patting her not so bountiful chest which made the Knight stare at her. "W-what?" He shakes his head and walks to the back, opening the crate where his plate armors are kept, he takes out the damaged pauldron, strapping it to his belt as he nods to them.

"Ahhhhh... Grif, should we buy a new set of clothes? At this time of the year, a caravan from Meridia should arrive. I heard that the metals there are pretty good." The young man shakes his head, tapping his chin, he squints at the sidewalk as they make a turn to the right where a market road was revealed to them. "Hmmm... I'd rather have something locally made. Foreign stuff might last longer but the materials are hard to get."